“He has heard it all from the other side, by this time,” answered the father bitterly.  “Though, of course, he has not heard the truth.”

“That is what I feared, so I didn’t lose a moment in communicating with you after I discovered the thing.  And what will you do?”

“I’ll have to think that over,” responded the Major with enforced quiet.  “I thank you, Regine.  I suspected mischief when your letter came urging me to come over at once.  Herbert was right, I should not have allowed Hartmut to leave my side for an hour, under any circumstances.  But I believed him to be so safe from every approach here at Burgsdorf.  And he was so rejoiced at the thought of spending his little vacation here, had so set his heart upon it, that I had not the strength to refuse him;—­and then he is seldom happy except when away from me.”

A hidden pain lay in the last words, but his listener only shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s not altogether the boy’s fault,” she answered, outspokenly.  “I keep my Will under pretty sharp discipline, but he knows well enough, in spite of all that, that he lives in his mother’s heart.  Hartmut has never learned as much of his father; he only knows his severe, unapproachable side.  If he imagined that you almost adored—­“’

“He would at once misuse the knowledge and leave me weaponless with his flattery and caresses.  He’d rule over me as he does over every one else who comes near him.  His comrades follow him blindly, and are as often punished as he for his misdoings.  He has your Willibald completely under his control, and his teachers treat him with especial indulgence.  I am the only one whom he fears, and, as a natural consequence, the only one whom he respects.”

“And you believe fear to be the only weapon to use against him? just now, too, when his mother is, without doubt, overwhelming him with lavish caresses?  Do not turn away, old friend, you know I have never mentioned that name before you, but now that it is brought unavoidably to the front again I must speak plainly.  I must admit we could expect nothing less from Frau Zalika, than that she would appear again.  Nothing would have been gained even if you had not allowed him to leave your side, for you could not guard a lad of seventeen like a little child.  The mother would have found some way to see her child, and that is her right—­I should do the same.”

“Her right?” interrupted the Major violently.  “And you say that to me, Regine?”

“I say it, because I know what it is to have an only son.  It was right for you to take your child, for such a mother was not fit to educate him; but that you should refuse to let her see her son again, after an absence of twelve years, is a hardness and cruelty which can only be prompted by hate.  No matter how great her guilt may have been—­the punishment is too hard.”

Falkenried looked gloomily on the ground; he knew there was truth in her words; at last he said slowly: